By Team Mangalorean, Bangalore

Bangalore February 28, 2009: Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa on Friday offered a further dose of reliefs such as lowering VAT on different commodities and grants to various communities and organisations to the tune of roughly Rs 35 crore.

He imposed additional excise duties on Indian made foreign liquor (IMFL), beer and other low alcohol beverages to net Rs 820 crore more revenue from the excise during the coming year. The exact amount of the additional excise duties on liquor is yet to be worked out and will be notified shortly in view of the commencement of the excise year from July 1.

In  a reply to the debate on the budget proposals for the year 2009-10, which were presented in the state assembly on last Friday, the chief minister announced reduction in VAT on Kannada software development, plastic tarpaulin and converters of organic waste from the present 12.5% to 3%, hike in honoraium to the nearly 56,000 village accountants from the present Rs 2000 to Rs 3000 and Rs 9,500 a quintal as the support price for arecanut and Rs  5 crore for taking up a lift irrigation project in Malavalli taluk.

Other major decisions included: 

• Loans at at 3% interest from cooperative institutions and commercial banks to the backward and numerically large Idiga community, which is quite predominant in Shimoga, Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts who lost jobs due to ban of arrack.
• Rs 3 crore to Arya Idiga Math in Solur in Magadi taluk
• Rs 3 crore to Chalavadi community for construction of community buildings in Bangalore, Shimoga and Bidar districts besides a site in Bangalore.
•  Sops of Rs 1 crore  each have been announced for Kodavas, construction of Jagannathrao Joshi memorial at Nargund, Mogaveeras for a community building and math at Bennekudra in Barkur and Pandarapur yatri nivas construction in Maharashtra.
• Rs 2 crore for distribution as subsidy at Rs 10 lakh each to 50 Kannada films.
• Rs 1 crore from Kannada film workers welfare trust
• Rs 5 lakh additional subsidy to Kannada films winning national awards besides annual grants of Rs I crore for celebrating Basava utsav at Basavakalyan a major pilgrim centre of Lingayats
• Rs 50 lakh to Kuvempu foundation in Kuppalli for honouring the Jnanapith award winning Kannada writer
• Rs 20 lakh for organising cultural activities at Sanehalli in Chitraduga.

In his two-hour reply, Mr Yeddyurappa said that the shortfall in revenues for the year 2008-09 would be around Rs 3000 crore with commercial taxes, excise and motor vehicle taxes contributing more than the target.

There was a decline in stamps and registration due to the economic meltdown and the consequent crash in real estate prices and property registration. However, the overall growth would be around 11% against the anticipated 22%.

He also contended that the government was confident of exceeding 90% of plan expenditure for 2008-09 as the 53.4% of plan expenditure had been achieved at the end of January.

For the development of infrastructure facilities in Bangalore, he proposed investment of Rs 7,376 crore which would be contributed by BBMP, BDA and other agencies, including private investment of Rs 2,000 crore on PPP model, road networks in other urban and rural areas, education and healthcare besides social services were likely to witness quantum improvement. 

B'lore airport to be named after Kempegowda

Bangalore: The Silicon Valley of India’s (Bangalore) founder Kemegowda will be honored by giving his name to Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) at Devanahalli, 40 kms from the city.

BJP Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Friday told the Legislative Assembly that the government has recommended the Centre to name BIAL after Kempegowda, popularly described as Nadaprabhu, the founder of Bangalore City.

In fact, some Muslim organizations have been demanding to name the Airport after Tippu Sultan, since the fort built him was located at Devanahalli. The new international airport in Hyderabad was named after former PM late Rajiv Gandhi by the Y.S.R Government in AP.

During the reply on the State budget for 2009-10, the Chief Minister said name of Kempegowda has been recommended to the centre to name the airport after the founder of the city.  Both ruling and opposition members widely welcomed it by thumping of desks. D.K. Shivakumar and JD (S) members said they had suggested the centre to name the airport after the Chieftain a long ago.

Kempegowda, is a Vokkaliga chieftain and the community is quite predominant in the Old Mysore region. The Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat was built by another Vokkaliga chief minister Kengal Hanumanthaiah, and the former prime minister and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda as well as his son H D Kumaraswamy and senior Congress leader S M Krishna hail from the Vokkaliga community. 

Incidentally, the Yeddyurappa-led BJP regime had reversed the declared policy of previous governments against naming any university in the state after any living or dead person by deciding to name the newly formed Tumkur university after Siddaganga math pontiff Dr Shivakumar Swamiji.

The seer, who recently celebrated his 101st birthday, belongs to the Lingayat community, which is politically predominant in northern Karnataka, and is revered by people of all faiths.

Walkout on Airport issue

The Opposition members in the Karnataka Legislative Council, staged a walkout in protest against impounding fertile agriculture land for the proposed Greenfield Airport in Bellary district, here today.

Raising the issue as soon the House assembled for the day, the main Opposition and Congress leader V S Ugrappa demanded the State Government to drop the proposed new Airport in Bellary, as it was resisted by the farmers.

Vehmently opposing the Government's attitude over the issue, Mr Ugrappa said construction of Airport at the fertile agriculture land would violate the Supreme Court's directions. The apex court had issued directions that agriculture land should not be acquired for any other purposes, he added.

Charging that B S Yeddyurappa's Government was adopting an anti-farmers policy, he said agitating farmers were beaten up and sent to prison.

Committee to probe MLA's bribe incident

Karnataka Assembly Speaker Jagdeesh Shettar today constituted a seven-member special House Committee to probe the incident of disgraced BJP legislator L Sampangi, who was caught red-handed by Lokayukta police while accepting a bribe of Rs five lakh last month.

The Speaker announced in the House that the committee headed by Deputy Speaker K G Bopaiah, would submit the report within a month.

The purpose of the committee was to probe the matter to help the House to take a collective decision on the disqualification of the legislator from the House.

Depending on the committee report, the Speaker would give his 'trend setting' decision on the incident. If Sampangi was to be disqualified, it would be the first such incident in the history of Karnataka legislature.

Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjuna Kharge had raised the issue on the opening day of the session on February 19, urging the Speaker to disqualify the MLA.

Sampangi was arrested on January 29 after Lokayukta sleuths raided his room in the Legislators hostel, while he was accepting the bribe to influence Kolar Gold Fields police to close a case against a person over a house site dispute. He spend two days in jail before he was granted conditional bail.

Council passess Appropriation bill

The Karnataka Legislative Council was today adjourned sine die by Chairman Veeranna Mathikati after the House passed seven Bills, including Appropriation Bill, amidst a walkout staged by the Opposition Congress.

The other Bills passed by the House included Karnataka VAT (Amendment) Bill, Karnataka Taxation Loss (Amendment) Bill, Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility (Amendment) Bill, Karnataka Motor Vehicle Taxation (Amendment) Bill, Karnataka Stamp (Amendment) Bill and Karnataka Appropriation (No 1) Bill.

Earlier, the Opposition Congress staged walkout stating that the ruling BJP had failed the control its members. The trouble started when Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu in a remark raised the name of former Chief Minister Veerappa Moily, when Opposition leader V S Ugrappa was commenting on the reply given by Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa during discussion on the Budget for 2009-10.

Despite, the Chief Minister's intervention and appeal to the Chairman to expunge the comment made by Mr Naidu, Congress party members staged the walkout. Efforts of Chief Whip Shivayogi Swamy and M P Nadagouda(JD-U) to convince the Congress went in vain as they refused to return to the House.

The Vote on Account for three months was passed by the House.